PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said innocent killings had no place in a civilised society. "My party strongly condemned such incidents. It's unfortunate that the government had put the lives of elected members of village bodies in jeopardy through its selfish and narrow minded policies," she alleged.

The PDP president said the society that elected them would have been the strongest security for the panches and sarpanches if the government had empowered them sufficiently to perform and bring benefits of panchayati raj to people. "Instead of doing that the government used panchayat elections as a slogan of achievement and panches as audience for party functions," she added.

Calling upon the government to come out with investigation reports of the half a dozen village representatives killed so far, Mehbooba said the government cannot escape accountability for their killing.

Mehbooba said the chief minister had stated that security would be provided to panches and sarpanches at least in the areas where the threat perception suggested it. "Like all his announcements this one too has turned out to be false," she said.